Things to Worry About

Dear Pie:

Things to worry about:
Worry about courage.
Worry about cleanliness.
Worry about efficiency.


Things NOT to worry about:
Don't worry about popular opinion.
Don't worry about dolls.
Don't worry about the past.
Don't worry about the future.
Don't worry about growing up.
Don't worry about anybody getting ahead of you.
Don't worry about triumph.
Don't worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault…
Don't worry about parents.
Don't worry about boys.
Don't worry about disappointments.
Don't worry about pleasures.
Don't worry about satisfactions.


Things to think about:
What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
a) Scholarship?
b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?
With Dearest Love,
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
From a letter to his daughter, Frances, 1933.

Twenty-five years ago today:

November 27, 1986
Thursday

It's Thanksgiving Day.

I slept in nicely and it was nice to have that feeling of a four-day weekend.

By noon I was at mom and dad's house. My brothers and sister-in-laws arrived.  It was festive family fun day.   It was nice having 'kids' around as I played with Ashley and Lauren in the indoor patio.

I took a number of POLAROID shots.

We ate the feast.  It was fun.  John couldn't wait to dive in to the turkey.  I was anxious for the sweet mashed potatoes.

I remained there all day and night.

I think I fell asleep after my brothers left. When I woke up I ate again and simply watched TV with ma and pa.  I'm lucky.  I don't really have a lot to worry about.  I am Thankful.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. The word is the result of a mighty thought, and where the thought is mighty and pure the result is always mighty and pure.-Mohandas K Gandhi